LEARN FROM THE BEST
In a nutshell, here is what was discovered in recent years by some of the most renowned positive psychology scholars and researchers. Some lessons may seem intuitive, others not. Research at times confirms and other times contradicts what we expect.
The University of Pennsylvania's Masters of Applied Positive Psychology gives an opportunity to all its students to personally meet with and learn directly from most or all of these top researchers. For this reason, Optimal Living's consultants, coaches and speakers are graduates of this program.
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  "Skeptics may argue that positive psychology is fuzzy and that we care about how people do; not how they feel. My answer to this is that we have solid, well-measured evidence showing that people who feel better do better. Happiness produces higher performance."
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Martin Seligman, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
For more info, please visit www.authentichappiness.org or read Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment or Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life
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 "Optimal experience is something that we make happen. The best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile."
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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
For more info, please visit www.cgu.edu/pages/1871.asp or read Flow: the Psychology of Optimal Experience
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 "Perhaps the most counterintuitive finding is that only about 10% of the variance in our happiness is explained by differences in life circumstances or situations - that is, whether we are rich or poor, healthy or unhealthy, beautiful or plain, married or divorced, etc. A great deal of science backs up this conclusion. Thus the key to happiness lies not in changing our circumstances, but in what we do in our daily lives and how we think."
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Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., University of California
For more info, please visit www.thehowofhappiness.com or read The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want.
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 "Attaining lasting happiness requires that we enjoy the journey on our way toward a destination we deem valuable. Happiness, therefore, is not about making it to the peak of the mountain, nor is it about climbing aimlessly around the mountain: happiness is the experience of climbing toward the peak."
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Tal Ben-Shahar, Ph.D., Harvard University
For more info, please visit http://talbenshahar.com or read Happier.
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 "Gallup's studies indicate that people who do have the opportunity to focus on their strengths every day are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life in general. Equally, if your manager focuses on your strengths, you have only a 1% chance to be actively disengaged at work. You cannot be anything you want to be - but you can be a lot more of who you already are."
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Tom Rath, MAPP, Gallup
For more info, please visit www.gallup.com or read Strengths Finder 2.0.
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 "Self-regulation is a core capacity that can be strengthened through exercise (like a muscle). If your self-regulation is powerful enough, then regardless of your inclinations, past experiences, or neuroses, you can always do the right or adaptive thing. Self-regulation can be the trump card of personality."
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Roy Baumeister, PhD., Florida State University
For more info, please visit www.psy.fsu.edu/faculty/baumeister.dp.html or read Losing Control: How and Why People Fail at Self-Regulation.
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 "Happiness comes from between. It is not something that you can get, find, or achieve directly. You have to get the conditions right and then wait. Some of those conditions are within you; other conditions are outside of you. It is worth striving to get the right relationships between yourself and others, between yourself and your work, and between yourself and something larger than yourself. If you get these relationships right, a sense of purpose and meaning will emerge."
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Jonathan Haidt, Ph.D., University of Virginia
For more info, please visit www.jonathanhaidt.com or read The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom.
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 "'Time famine' has become a familiar slogan in both academic literature and the popular media. 40% of people say that time is a bigger problem for them than money. However, don't get overly enthusiastic about time management courses. They often fail to produce the desired results because they focus on changing how you manage your time rather than how you think about time."
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Ilona Boniwell, Ph.D., University of East London
For more info, please visit www.uel.ac.uk/psychology/staff/ilonaboniwell.htm or read Positive Psychology in a Nutshell. This is the #1 selling book on positive psychology in the UK and it is not yet available in the US, except through this link!
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 "Evidence shows that the benefits of gratefulness are at once psychological, physical and interpersonal. Psychologically, grateful people experience more positive emotions, are more alert, zestful and enthusiastic. Physically, gratitude is associated with higher energy levels, more exercise, better quality of sleep and fewer symptoms. Socially, people that develop gratefulness also become more helpful and feel closer and more connected to others."
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Robert A Emmons, Ph.D., University of California
For more info, please visit www.drrobertemmons.com or read Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier.
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 "Spirituality - made up of the prosocial positive emotions - reflects humanity's biological press for connection and community building as much as it reflects humanity's need for individual meditation or revelation. Happiness is all about me; many positive emotions (like spirituality) are more about relationships. Even the Buddhist ideal is that of the bodhisattva, one who elects voluntarily to stay in this world and to help others, rather than entering directly into Nirvana. In short, spirituality is more about loving service than meditation."
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George Vaillant, Ph.D., Harvard University
For more info, please visit www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Eman_Vaillant or read Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Harvard Study of Adult Development
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